The autumn wind grew colder and colder, almost drowning out the clatter of armor from the troops on their evening patrol.
This was the Permanent Military Camp north of Lihu City. Beneath the lamplight, Zhang Xing and Bai Yousi, who had declined to enter the city, sat facing each other on an excessively broad couch. Between them lay a small mountain of letters, some on paper, others on silk, the paper sealed in envelopes and the silk tucked into pouches.
"Isn't this a bit much?" Sitting against the wall with her hair loose, Bai Yousi rested her chin on her hand and smiled, stating an enormous truth.
With a small table set before him, Zhang Xing casually tore open a letter and nodded as he read. "It certainly is. And plenty of them are useless or repetitive. But there's no helping it. Coming here from Dengzhou, we've essentially touched every place the Exorcising the Dragon Gang controls. Messages have come in from inside and out."
Bai Yousi shook her head.
"What do you mean?" Zhang Xing roughly finished scanning the letter, turned to jot a brief note on a sheet beside him, then tossed the letter straight into a basket beneath the couch. "Did I get something wrong?"
"It's not that you said anything wrong. I just think you brought this situation on yourself, Sanlang," Bai Yousi said frankly.
"How so, Heroine Bai?" Zhang Xing kept working without even raising his head.
"These letters, the messengers we met along the way, even the verbal messages we heard-they aren't talking about official business. They want to know how you intend to deal with Li Shu, how you'll handle the Huaiyou Alliance. They're offering suggestions or asking where you intend to attack next." Bai Yousi spoke without reservation. "And these matters are